Should India continue with the Iran gas pipeline project ?

India,Iran and Pakistan are part of a gas pipeline deal to bring gas from Iran to India. I don't think it is a good idea to continue with this project. This pipeline goes through Pakistan to get to India. Pakistan is a reliable partner in any deal. Pakistan militants can blow this pipeline at anytime. Pakistan govt. can threaten to block this pipeline . Having said this, how can to build any projects around this unreliable gas supply.

Going to bed with an untrustworthy partner is not a bright idea.

Electricity, the lifeline of a growing nation

Recently there has been a lot of power cuts in Tamil Nadu. It is a fast growing state and needs electricity to power its growth. We have a finite source and we need more and more power. What is the plan of action to address this acute shortage of power? I haven't heard one from the Chief minister .How irresponsible ?

Govt. should come out with a short-term and a long-term plan . People are left in the dark with all these random power cuts. Here are some things which Govt. can do.

1. Govt. has to first manage expectations and share their plan with the people.
2. Govt. will have to look at their consumption and start making changes to reduce their power footprint. e.g change street bulbs to more energy efficient ones
3. Enact laws which will encourage/enforce more energy efficient products.
4. Review the power transmission lines to make them more efficient.
5. More than 25% of electricity produced is lost to power theft.
6. Govt should encourage use of solar water heaters, energy conversion devices of waste to energy etc
7. Long-term we need to look for more sources of energy . e.g solar, nuclear, wind etc.

Irony of the 1 lakh car

Tatas recently announced the launch of the one lakh car. I am happy that the Tatas are making car ownership a reality for low-income families. Unfortunately this is not the toast of the country . Everyone is afraid of the traffic nightmare this launch will cause. India today does not have the road infrastructure to handle more cars.

The public is worried about it but does any politician want to listen? Growth is a good thing but don't get ahead of yourself . If the infrastructure is not there, you are going to choke yourself and growth will cease to exist.

Disparate road conditions

Recently I was in India and had a chance to experience the road conditions after the monsoon. It is a disaster. There are great cars and bikes being produced in India but does anyone care about the roads on which these run? The roads are so bad that the car chassis bumps against the road. The rains have practically washed away parts of the roads. I am talking about major roads in cities and the explained given was that we had rains in the recent past.

In contrast, I travelled on some of the private/toll roads and they were not affected by the rains. How is this possible? This means the roads are not layed properly by the govt. contracted agencies. In fact these roads are re-layed newly every year. How is the private sector able to lay such good roads? Why cannot the govt. pay these companies and get the same quality work done ? Where is all the money going? You don't have to lay road every year if you lay them properly even if it costs more.

You be the judge as to who is cheating the public ? The politicians ,the contracted agencies, the govt. officials or am I expecting too much .

Road layouts in new settlements

Road planning in India is one of the areas we need to improve drastically. Not much can be done about widening the road in already settled areas but at least better planning can be done in newly developing settlements. Why are we not seeing this happen?

Contrary to expectations, roads in new settlements are narrower and poorly planned. Most of the roads are single lane roads. Why is the govt. approving such new settlements? Govt. needs to come up with a standard for all new settlements. The govt. officials who approve new settlements should make sure these rules are adhered to . Corrupt officials who take money and approve settlements which don't follow the requirements should be brought to justice.

Traffic nightmare

The last time I was in India, I was shocked with the amount of traffic in Chennai. I don't think it is any different in any other major city in India . If we don't do anything about it, we will have a traffic nightmare. Don't even get me started on pollution. Has the govt. even given a thought to this ? What have they done so for? What can be done ?

We are have a growing problem . Population growth is a big factor but more than that movement on people from villages and town to the major cities worsens the situation. If this needs to change, growth needs to be distributed across the country. Improve the public transportation system so much that people start to pick that compared to their own vehicles. Let the buses have their own lanes which will enable them to handle the traffic system better. This advantage will go a long way in people switching to the public transportation system.

Road laying contracts

Most of the road laying is contracted out but there is no proper overseeing agency to make sure that the roads are layed according to standards . If there is one , it is corrupt and does'nt hold the contracting company responsible for substandard roads.

Government needs to correct this first . Roads are an essential part of our country's infrastructure and proper overseeing agency is required . The old road needs to be dug out first before laying the new road . Proper construction material and composition of the same needs to be maintained . There needs to be some kind of warranty for all roads laid by contractors.

Disinvestment of public sector companies

In the recent past the government has started disinvesting in public sector companies but some of the profitable companies have been put under the navratna status and are not being disinvested as they are profit generating companies . The decision to disinvest or not should not be based on whether it is profit generating or not . I think government should only be invested in essential services where no one is ready to invest & national security related investments like defence companies . In all other sectors the government should become facilitators and make sure private entities play by the rules to maintain fair competition among competitors.

For example government should not be invested in any telecom companies . The Ambanis ,Bhartis etc are ready to invest in this sector . Govt should just regulate and collect license fees and they have done this very well . This needs to be extended to the other sectors as well . By doing this government can concentrate on other important social and infrastructure needs .

Stop developing Tier 1 cities

Most of the major cities in India have serious infrastructure crisis. These cities are characterized by high traffic, pollution, crime and sanitation problems to name a few. What is the reason for this? What can be done to improve the situation?

The reason I guess is due to much growth happening only in the major cities. A city should grow only to the extent that its infrastructure can support. A new factory or a call center brings in more employment which leads to more people moving into the city. But it puts additional burden on the city's infrastructure? Roads get more traffic, more policing required, more water, more electricity, more pollution etc. The perfect example of this is Bangalore. There was too much growth without corresponding infrastructure growth. Now MNCs and the residents are threatening to move out. Even if infrastructure is improved, a city can only support so much population.

My thoughts are governments should stop requesting investments in Tier 1 cities and start encouraging investments in Tier 2 cities. The best way is to locate industries 100 kms from Tier 1 cities. This way they have access to the Tier1 city's infrastructure but the workers will be located in the place where the industry is located.

Wat(er) crisis?

India is blessed with so many perennial rivers but we have lands where we don’t have enough water and lands which are flooded with water in the rainy season. What is wrong? Unfortunately all the North Rivers happen to be perennial and the south ones are not. What can be done to change our fate/destiny?

Way back there was a river integration project conceived. What happened to it? One friend of mine put it this way, "Our people will let the water in the sea, than to see other folks in need use it”. Is it true? I hear that they benched the project as it would cost too much but now it cost so many times more. Are we going to leave it that way or are we going to help ourselves by integrating the rivers?

Ask me and I would say we need to go forward with the project. There is too much at stake and we need to come together and look at the “water crisis” as a national issue and not look at it as a state issue.